Golden State Today

California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a statement today following Governor Gavin Newsom's signing of Assembly Bill (AB) 1893, which aims to facilitate housing production in cities and counties that fail to adopt a compliant housing element on time. The bill, authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and sponsored by Attorney General Bonta, seeks to address California's housing crisis.

“We need more housing in California. At its core, that’s what AB 1893 is all about. In the face of resistance by a handful of local governments, we are refusing to stand idly by — we are continuing to act,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Thanks to Governor Newsom, and to Assemblymember Wicks’ leadership in the legislature, cities and counties will face greater accountability if they fail to plan for the housing needs of their community. I know full well that no jurisdiction alone will be able to solve our housing crisis, but each has the potential, capacity, and legal responsibility to make a difference.”

Assemblymember Wicks echoed this sentiment: “With this bill, we're making sure that every city and county steps up to do their part. Housing laws exist for a reason — to ensure that communities are zoning for enough housing, reducing barriers to development, and promoting fair housing practices. AB 1893 will hold jurisdictions accountable, even those that have resisted compliance. This is about ensuring that no matter where you live, we are building the housing California desperately needs. I’m incredibly proud to partner with the Attorney General on this — together, we’re making sure California’s housing laws are enforced and ensuring no community can shirk its responsibility to build.”

Under the state’s housing element law, local governments must periodically update their housing plans to meet their Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). Failure to adopt a timely and compliant local housing plan triggers the "builder’s remedy," a provision in effect since 1990 that limits local governments' ability to restrict new affordable and mixed-income housing projects.

Effective January 1, 2025, AB 1893 will modernize and improve the efficacy of the builder’s remedy by:

- Designating sites appropriate for residential development even where a city has refused to make its own plan. Sites abutting heavy industrial use would be precluded from the builder’s remedy due to potential environmental threats.

- Providing clear objective standards such as increasing allowed density in high-resource areas or areas near transit.

- Incentivizing housing construction by reducing the portion of units in mixed-income projects required at subsidized prices from 20% to 13%. The affordability requirement can also be met with 10% of units affordable for very low-income households or 7% for extremely low-income households.

- Allowing city planning staff to quickly process builder’s remedy applications using baseline development standards set forth in the bill.

- Strengthening the Housing Accountability Act by closing loopholes and defining certain processing delays as project disapprovals.

- Making technical amendments to clarify how the builder’s remedy interacts with other state law.

A copy of the legislation can be found here.